Architecture Thursday / Nakagin Capsule Tower
Location Tokyo, Japan
Constructed 1970-1972
Use Residential, office
Technical details Floor count 13 / Floor area 3,091.23 m2
Architect Kisho Kurokawa
His visions were for cities of the future inhabited by a mass society were characterized by large scale, flexible, and expandable structures, ostensibly based on Buddhist notions of impermanence and change.
It is actually composed of two interconnected concrete towers, respectively eleven and thirteen floors, which house 140 prefabricated capsules which are each self-contained units. Each capsule measures 8 ft x 12 ft x 7 ft and functions as a small living or office space.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic for The New York Times, described Nakagin Capsule Tower as “gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values.
